PAN is proud to be nominated for Best New Tech Product for the 17th Annual TechPoint Mira Awards. PAN was selected from over 160 applicants to be nominated for this award. Nominees were selected by 40 independent subject matter experts who evaluated and ranked the applications. Later this month, all nominees will deliver presentations and […]

As I watch my daughter polish off her bowl of porridge at breakfast, I ask “What’s wrong with the bit that’s still left in the bowl?” – a tiny bit closest to her but hidden on the inside curve of the bowl remains uneaten. “There isn’t any left!” she replies, and we both laugh as […]

“We’ve got our own competency model” sounds like an innocent phrase, but can be worrisome to an external consultant. Not all competency models are created equal, and even good ones can present a challenge to those of us who have to assess people against them. When Occupational Psychologists like me work with businesses that have […]

We’ve all heard the horror stories about bad business decisions. Way back in 1876, Western Union turned down an offer to buy the patent on the telephone, as the device clearly had ‘no commercial possibilities’; more recently we could cite Kodak inventing the digital camera but then doing nothing with it (because it could have […]

In the last few days of the race, the media buzz around the Tour de France reached a crescendo in the UK – not least because Team Sky’s champion rider Chris Froome was dominating the race, and the chances for others to put the brakes on him were narrowing. In an unprecedented move, Team Sky […]

As an Occupational Psychologist, something I’ve had to grow used to is being told by managers that there’s very little I’ll be able to add to how they currently recruit people. And so it was on the cold December night several years ago when I half walked, half skated across icy pavements to meet the […]

With the election looming, we look at the relationship between personality and political preferences. Economic theories used to have one massive stinker of a mistake at their core: the idea that people make rational choices with money. Thankfully, eminent psychologists pointed out that humans are far from rational in their financial decisions; now a growing […]

Several clients are telling me that as many as 40% of their new employees are leaving within one month of starting their new job. Some environments are feeling the effects of this job market wanderlust more than others: call centres are practically hemorrhaging staff in both customer service and sales roles. This trend was reflected […]

References on job candidates are a very valuable source of information, and yet they are being requested less and less by private sector employers. The main reasons are a fear on the part of the referee (or the referee’s employer) that if they give a candid reference, they might be sued; and skepticism on the […]

Does being an only child make you any different from your colleagues or friends? Do younger siblings really have traits that make them stand out from their older sibling peers? New research from OPP Ltd. suggests that younger siblings have a harder time when it comes to feeling relaxed and self-confident. Mark Zuckerberg, the internet-based […]

“Improve your self-esteem and you’ll rapidly improve your chances of fulfilment, success and happiness in life.” The above statement seems to makes perfect sense. (I made it up, but it’s typical of what you’ll find on the creaking self-help shelves of any bookshop). It appears both logical and emotionally appealing, probably in part because it […]

We’re all getting older. That’s always been true; what’s different now is that most of the people around us at work are a little bit older too. Life expectancy is rising, and we don’t have to retire at a set age any more; the proportion of the workforce aged over 50 has gone up by 5% […]

Look around you – how many people can you see truly enjoying their jobs? How many of your friends tell you about their working day with joy and excitement? Sadly, the majority of people in the UK feel they are in the wrong job or that they are not tapping into their full potential. This […]

For months now, there’s been a bit of extravert-bashing going on in the press and in some psychology papers. The chances are that if you haven’t noticed this… you’re probably an extravert! How so? Well extraverts tend to read less. Then if they do read something critical about their character, they’re far less likely than introverts to […]

OPP Ltd. recently carried out research looking at the extent to which ambition and personality predict career success. It is often assumed that the three elements are linked, but this was an opportunity to explore the evidence. The following notes are a summary of a paper I presented at this year’s BPS Division of Occupational […]

How comfortable would you feel about your personality being reduced down to just one score from 1 to 10? The top end of the scale would describe a more desirable personality, the bottom end… well, sorry… undesirable. Perhaps you could wear your number on a badge. Surely this would save a lot of time at […]

After two years of intensive work, the Office for National Statistics has published a new report on how happy we are in the UK (Measuring National Well-being: Life in the UK, 2012).  Inevitably, the news media have picked up on the “happiest places to live in the UK” (the Outer Hebrides, Shetlands and the Orkney […]

Did you catch last week’s debate on Radio 4’s PM about the use of interviews in recruitment? Much was made on the programme about how awful it is for a candidate to be put through lengthy competency-based interviews and assessment centres only to be told that they didn’t get the job. Conducting a thorough assessment process […]

In this post, I would like to outline my thoughts surrounding combining factors when using the 16pf questionnaire. I shall start by borrowing an analogy from my colleague Richard. Playing the middle C on a piano creates a pleasant and inoffensive sound. However, if you were to combine, say, C, E and G then you […]

With Monday of this week being dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, a.k.a the most depressing day of the year, many of us are going into hibernation to avoid the cold weather and in a bid to pay off those Christmas debts. But what does your personality say about your likely happiness levels? Are there some personality traits […]